


Broken bones, I'm left for dead (but still I carry on)

by MYuzuki



Series: No matter what’s in front of me (I’ll keep fighting til I’ve won) [45]
Category: Final Fantasy XV, Kingsglaive
Genre: Gen, Healer Ardyn Izunia, Hurt Nyx Ulric, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sparring, Training, much to everyone's surprise lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:07:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26858704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MYuzuki/pseuds/MYuzuki
Summary: The training sessions for the Prince and his friends go well, right up until Nyx takes a surprise hit from Ignis Scientia's spear and feels his ribs go from cracked-but-healing to broken-and-about-to-puncture-a-lung.
Relationships: Ardyn Izunia & Nyx Ulric, Cor Leonis & Nyx Ulric
Series: No matter what’s in front of me (I’ll keep fighting til I’ve won) [45]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897525
Comments: 18
Kudos: 123





	Broken bones, I'm left for dead (but still I carry on)

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back, everyone! Thank you so much for all the wonderful feedback on the previous drabble, you guys are awesome! <3 Anyway, I hope you enjoy this installment as well. ;D

**Broken bones, I'm left for dead (but still I carry on)**

* * *

The training session starts off good.

At least, it starts of good for Nyx and Cor.

For Noctis and his friends, who are on the receiving end of a Training From Hell regimen crafted by Cor "The Immortal" Leonis and Nyx "fought General Glauca to the death and won" Ulric, it's a significantly more harrowing experience.

Prompto in particular seems to outwardly panic the most, literally squawking in alarm whenever Nyx warps in behind him to test his reflexes with surprise attacks.

(Nyx has to give the kid props, though; his instincts are damn good, and nine times out of ten Prompto will have his pistol up and around and pointing at Nyx within three seconds no matter how unexpected the sneak attack is.)

Ignis and Gladio aren't as obvious in their panic over being more or less absolutely thrashed by two of the most powerful warriors in all of Lucis; the only real tells are the tightness in Ignis's jaw and the way Gladio's eyebrows are slowly lowering down into a frustrated scowl as he fails to make any headway, but even so its clear that they're plenty appreciative of how obviously outclassed they are up against not just Cor and Nyx but _Cor and Nyx together_.

(Because it had become rapidly apparent, about twenty minutes into the training session, that while Cor and Nyx are quite formidable on their own, when they _combine_ their efforts it's something else entirely.

 _Well_ , Nyx thinks with wry amusement after a particularly one-sided bout that had left Noctis and all of his friends cursing them out and panting for breath, _we are certainly putting them through their paces, at least._ )

The only person who doesn't seem _excessively_ alarmed is Noctis (presumably because he knows that Cor and Nyx would rather carve out their own kidneys than actually hurt their prince, terrorizing-via-training notwithstanding) and even so he's all but radiating a frustrated sort of why-can't-I-land-a-hit flavor of panic.

But all in all, it's a good training session, and everything is going according to plan.

Or rather, the training session for the Prince and his friends goes well…right up until Nyx takes a surprise hit from Ignis Scientia's spear (the advisor's knives had been discarded at some point during the last round of fighting) and feels his ribs go from cracked-but-healing to broken-and-about-to-puncture-a-lung.

It's not a great feeling, truth be told, but it is (for better or worse) a feeling he has a passing familiarity with, so the second he feels that sharp telltale stabbing pain in his abdomen he chokes out a curse under his breath and warps himself some distance away to assess the damage.

Cor seems to know something is wrong almost immediately, calling a halt to the free-for-all sparring match that all of them had been engaged in. "Nyx?" he calls out, voice carrying across the training field.

Nyx lifts an arm to wave him off, then doubles over in pain as the movement sends another wave of pain cascading through his body. "Motherfucker," he hisses out, carefully taking slow shallow breaths in an attempt to avoid causing more damage.

(The situation is twice as infuriating because it's his own damn fault, really, for pushing himself so hard during a training session when his injuries hadn't finished healing yet; he'd sensed the point at which he _should_ have eased up -had, in fact, passed it almost forty minutes ago- but despite Cor's insistence that he stand down once he reached that point he'd kept pushing through the pain and exhaustion anyway.)

He's about to call out to Cor, to ask for a potion to ease the pain and heal some of the internal damage (he knows someone would give him one, he can hear their concerned murmurs and slightly panicked whispers from all the way across the field) but before he can raise his voice there's an unmistakable crackle of magic in the air beside him, all shadows and fire and ancient power as someone warps to stand beside him.

"Didn't realize you were lurking nearby," Nyx breathes out, slanting a look over at Ardyn that would probably be a glare if he was feeling a little less like he was about to throw up a mouthful of blood.

"Yes, well," the bastard replies airily, "I do so love to watch fools tear each other to shreds. Where better to witness such a delightful spectacle than on the royal training grounds?" Then, before Nyx can fire back an appropriately cutting retort, he reaches out and presses a slender hand against Nyx's flank, pushing lightly against his wounded ribs. "I have to admit, however," he continues, "I didn't expect the first casualty to be _you_. Although I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised, given that you elected to fight _when already injured_."

Nyx all but snarls at him, trying to twist away only for Ardyn to latch onto him and hold him in place with an iron grip. "What are you doing, you fucking-"

Ardyn's smooth voice cuts him off mid-insult, tone somewhere between exasperation and amusement. "I am trying to heal you, you complete and utter imbecile," he says, rolling his eyes in clear aggravation.

Nyx goes still more from surprise than anything, turning his head slightly to peer at Ardyn with what he knows is a thoroughly perplexed expression. "What do you mean, _heal_ me?" he asks, but Ardyn doesn't answer with words.

Instead, he presses his hands a little more firmly against Nyx's broken ribs, ignoring the sharp hiss of pain that Nyx gives in response.

And a strange sort of warmth creeps into him where Ardyn's fingers skim across his torso, and a wave of restorative magic washes through him, patching up the damage and knitting up the wounds, making it so that the agonizing pain of his broken ribs is little more than a dim memory within the span of a few short moments.

For such an impressive feat of magic ( _real_ healing magic, the sort that is so painfully rare these days outside of the curative power that the King and his son imbue into their potions and elixirs), it's over very quickly; one moment his ribs are broken, the next moment they are healed.

Thanks to Ardyn Izunia.

Ardyn, who pulls away from Nyx with an expression that is a peculiar combination of smug and startled, as if he's pleased with the outcome but confused as to why he'd done such a thing in the first place.

And Nyx…Nyx honestly doesn't even know what to _think_ , much less what to say.

Because Ardyn is a sly bastard whose greatest joy in life seems to come from poking at other people's sore spots to see what sorts of reactions he can get out of them, but that very same asshole had healed Nyx's ribs. Without being asked, even.

And he just _really_ doesn't know how to respond to that.

But Nyx's parents didn't raise him to be an ingrate, so he takes a deep breath (and damn, but does it feel good to be _able_ to take a deep breath again!) and looks over at Ardyn again. "…Thank you," he says after a moment, and if he sounds a bit dubious he thinks it can be forgiven considering the bizarreness of the situation.

Ardyn just gives a little sniff, a series of different expressions flitting across his face rapid-fire before that look of casual indifference tinged with dark amusement slides into place like an all-too-familiar mask. "Yes, well, I _was_ a healer once upon a time if you'll recall, and it seems that skill is one I've been permitted to keep. And it wouldn't do at all for you to expire in such an _inglorious_ fashion before I've solved the enigma surrounding you, now would it?"

Nyx scowls habitually as a series of alarm bells go off in his head, but he pushes down the worry for now, because Ardyn wouldn't be Ardyn if he wasn't prying around trying to sniff out secrets. Is it _ideal_ that Ardyn clearly thinks there's more to his story than meets the eye? No, it's really not.

But Ardyn isn't an idiot, so it's not exactly _surprising_.

And more than that, he'd just spared Nyx a considerable amount of pain and the possibility of a punctured lung; even if it was just done on a whim, it's hard not to appreciate that sort of thing.

**Author's Note:**

> In my head, the tl;dr version of this drabble basically goes like this:
> 
> Nyx: I'm ready to get back to fighting!
> 
> Also Nyx: *isn't fully recovered from his last adventure and breaks his ribs during a training session*
> 
> Cor:…I should have seen this coming. *cue long-suffering look*
> 
> Meanwhile the chocobros are all panicking in the background because "omg, we just broke the Kingsglaive commander, we're in so much trouble!" but everyone who knows Nyx is like, "oh, he's critically injured from being a dumbass again and pushing himself too hard? Must be Tuesday!"
> 
> (In all seriousness, though, it's not really anyone's *fault* that Nyx went from having cracked ribs to having broken ribs; it's just one of those unfortunate accidents where he threw himself into training the chocobros with a little more intensity than is advisable when one is still recovering from being batted around by a Cerberus. Statistically speaking, there was only a small chance of him getting seriously hurt again, but, well, Nyx has terrible luck sometimes (and possibly it still hasn't sunk in for him yet that he doesn't need to push himself that hard anymore, at least not during a training session) and I needed an excuse to have Ardyn heal his ribs, so I took that small chance and ran with it. ;D)


End file.
